The Hobbit: Reviews range from ‘brio & fun’ to ‘as a lover of Tolkien, it broke my heart’

The Hobbit An Unexpected Journey reviews so far: polite to heartbroken

The title of the film adaptation of J.R.R. Tolkien’s classic novel The Hobbit, which opens in theatres worldwide this Friday, says it all: An Unexpected Journey.

In the works since 2006, Warner Bros. didn’t even want eventual director Peter Jackson involved with the project, despite the massive returns the LOTR trilogy brought in and the director winning an Oscar for the final instalment, The Return of the King. After settling for an executive producer position instead, Jackson would eventually get a seat back in the director’s chair after filmmaker Guillermo del Toro walked away from the project in 2010. The production of The Hobbit made unfortunate headlines around the world regarding New Zealand’s film unions fighting to keep the filming of the epic in their country. When it finally did make it to screens for a premiere in New Zealand on Nov. 28, some audiences complained about motion sickness due perhaps to Jackson choosing to shoot the film at 48 frames per second rather than at 24.

And with the highly anticipated film just days away, The Hobbit gets set to face its greatest challenge yet: the critics.

At present, Rotten Tomatoes has The Hobbit at a 75% Fresh rating, but it’s still too early for a consensus, with review ranging from the polite — “Peter Jackson has made The Hobbit with brio and fun, and Martin Freeman is just right as Bilbo Baggins: he plays it with understatement and charm,” from The Guardian’s Peter Bradshaw — to the less so — “Tolkien’s brisk story of intrepid little hobbit Bilbo Baggins is drawn out and diluted by dispensable trimmings better left for DVD extras,” from The Associated Press’s David Germain.

In the end, viewers in North America will decide this Friday whether Jackson delivered the same magic to The Hobbit that he did with LOTR and if this journey was really worth the wait.